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Monday, 27 July 2015

Secrets at the Maple Syrup Farm - Rebecca Raisin

About the book...

Maple sugar kisses...

Lucy would do anything for her mom…but she never expected to end up promising to leave her. After her mom got sick, Lucy dropped everything to take care of her, working all hours in a greasy diner just to make ends meet and spending every spare moments she had by her mom’s hospital bedside.

Now, Lucy is faced with a whole year of living by her own rules, starting by taking the first bus out of town to anywhere…

Except she didn’t expect to find her next big adventure just around the corner! Especially when on her first day in town she bumps into grumpy, but oh-so-delicious Clay amidst the maple trees. Surrounded by the magic of Ashford, Lucy has the chance to change her life forever and finally discover a life she wants to live!

Fall in love with Ashford, Connecticut in this dazzling and beautiful romance from bestselling author Rebecca Raisin.

Rebecca Raisin is a true bibliophile. This love of books morphed into the desire to write them. She's been published in various short story anthologies and in in fiction magazines, and is now focusing on writing romance.

Rebecca aims to write characters you can see yourself being friends with. People with big hearts who care about relationships, and most importantly believe in true love.

My thoughts...I was given an ecopy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review which I'm more than happy to give.Rebecca Raisin is an author that writes such delicious stories you can't help but devour them in one sitting. The Gingerbread series kicked off with Christmas at the Gingerbread Cafe and I was hooked. Each book in the series was like adding icing on to the cake, making each more delicious than the last. Rebecca's style of writing ensures the characters she penned become like true friends. I really miss them when the book ends.

Secrets at Maple Syrup Farm sees Lucy beginning a journey. For the last ten years she had been caring for her sick mother, working double shifts to pay the rent and generally putting her own life on hold. All that changes when her mother makes her promise to take a year out - a year to find herself and discover what she wants in life. Her mother secretly hopes she'll apply for a scholarship to art college in France, believing she has what it takes as an artist; a belief not shared by Lucy. She literally has no confidence in herself at all, her only focus is providing comfort for her mother.

When Lucy gets on the first bus leaving town I wonder where she's going only guessing towards the end of the journey when I realise she's sat next to CeeCee - my heart literally melted, this women is a heart on legs and knowing Lucy was headed for Ashford made me sit grinning like an idiot.

Secrets at Maple Syrup Farm is a book that encapsulates everything that is Ashford and its inhabitants. It's a story that highlights the closeness of a community with big hearts, each and every resident giving freely of their time and advice to each other when needed. Rebecca has tapped into the charm, love and characters of a small community in much the same way as Lucy finds herself doing at Maple Syrup Farm, where she found herself a job as a farmhand. The goodness flows and with it barriers are lowered.

With each book Rebecca has written I find the storylines go a little bit deeper, the characters I've previously come to know and love providing a solid framework for the stories to rest upon. This story demonstrates the need to give time to ourselves as well as other people. Lucy had to learn that it was alright to take as well as to give. This story demonstrates time and again that there is always a reason for our actions, although the motivation behind them is not always clear at the time. Lucy's mum did her the biggest favour, although it wasn't clear to Lucy at the time by making her travel, proving that if we love someone we should set them free, although heart breaking she gave Lucy her wings.

This is a beautiful book, focusing on relationships between mothers and daughters, friendship, love and trust. I smiled, laughed and cried throughout Secrets at Maple Syrup Farm. If you like me are looking for a read that will pull at your heart strings, make you smile and awww then this is a book for you. It is a sensory book that one minute will have you drooling at the food and the next sniffing with emotion. The descriptions are so vivid, smells and tastes seem so real I’m sure I gained weight just reading about them. It has characters that I'd be proud to call my friends and a town that I'd move to tomorrow. There’s nothing like a small town community to close ranks and protect it’s own, residents and visitors alike. Rebecca has done it again, delivering exactly what I expected and more.I highly recommend this book and urge you to head to amazon and order it now - you won't be disappointed.Once again, I loved it, loved it, loved it.